These Days Are Dark
by Fayre Vala
Summary: Anna is changed forever by Elsa's curse.


_Shwing. _

Anna heard the sword ring only a few yards away, but the cold creeping into her veins clouded her mind. That's when she saw the pile of blue and blonde at Hans' feet.

"Elsa?"

Kristoff was running toward her, she knew, but there was the sword, held firmly in Hans' hand, and a furious desperation came swelling from the depths of her soul. She willed her feet to move, just one step forward, anything it took to warn her sister.

But she was too late. She was too far. Her trembling hand stretched in front of her, reaching out across too great a distance to where her sister lay collapsed on the ground. That's when she felt it.

"No!" The cry burst out of her just as the sword came down, her flesh turning to solid ice…

Anna expected death to feel effortless, like floating into the void. Instead, she felt a fierce and crippling burn of freezing cold. It seared her flesh, raging throughout her body, and then, after what seemed like an eternity, faded to a tingle, and slowly, slowly trickled away… The next thing she knew, she was standing on the frozen fjord, a pool of red swirling around her, and a motionless shape lying within it.

She was alive.  
Elsa was not.

These simple facts were all that throbbed in her mind. Feeling sick, Anna stumbled forward to her sister's lifeless body, hysteria rising as all the things she'd never get to say to her sister spilled out of her mouth.

I forgive you.  
Thank you.  
I need you.  
_Come back. _

But Elsa's eyes stared into nothingness. Tears blinded her as the truth hit. She was gone. Her curse was gone. She had sacrificed herself, and in return, Anna got to live.

But…  
If her magic was gone, why was Arendelle still buried in ice and snow?

Somewhere in the distance, Anna heard the crunch of footfalls carried in the wind.

_Hans. _

Rage swelled within her chest, burning white hot and icy. The storm picked up again, snow and wind swirling and howling around and around her, as though she were caught in the eye of a hurricane. Anna rose from the ground, her blood-stained hands raised of their own accord. She watched as the ice, coarse and furious, flew from within her and struck Elsa's murderer between his lower ribs, and knew.

The fjord hadn't thawed because Elsa's magic hadn't died with her.  
It had given itself to Anna.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as realization crashed down on her. Her heart fluttered against her chest, fighting against a tightness, a sharpness, still lodged somewhere deep inside, rattling against each contraction, sinking deeper and deeper as her breathing sped up. She inhaled, once, twice, and then, twist, and something exploded, frigid and bitter. Anna doubled over, clutching her chest, clawing and scraping at her skin as the dark power engulfed and freezed the vital muscle that had been her guide through the darkest times, that had given her hope and laughter and the desire to love.

But what use did she have for love now, when hers lay broken at her feet?

As suddenly as it began, it ended. Her heart burned an icy hole in her chest, a weight of solid ice. Rising to her feet, she felt erratic, volatile, dangerous. This power was the last bit of Elsa left on this earth, and it belonged to her. She would have wanted her to use it on her behalf. A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth, and she blasted icy air behind her, propelling her down the ice to where Hans stumbled away, clutching his bleeding torso. He turned back to face her, eyes wide in pain and shock to see the girl he'd previously abandoned barreling toward him. Anna splintered a thick shards of ice from the fjord and they carved a jagged clip into Hans' shoulder, the red-stained tips breaking through the skin on the other side. He roared in agony, and Anna slowed to a walk, circling her prey.

"I thought you were dead," Hans spat through gritted teeth.

"I am dead. The Anna you knew doesn't exist anymore. All that's left is her anger, her hurt, her rage."

"You're insane."

"No Hans, you're the crazy one! You thought you could mess with magic and not get burned?"

"How… how is this happening? Elsa is dead!"

Anna's eyes glistened as the storm raged around them. "She lives in me now."

Hans' eyes betrayed his defeat.

"Do the magic, Elsa."


End file.
